TEARFUL Lynda Smith bade a fond farewell to workmates after an astonishing 41 years working at the same Coventry firm.

The popular 55-year-old supervisor has served all of her working life at well-known city company Covrad Heat Transfer, in Sir Henry Parkes Road, Canley.

Lynda's workmates and family wanted to make sure she retired in style and they turned out in force to see her off with a speech and presents in the works canteen.

And sisters Ann Rafferty, aged 59, and Robbie Allen, aged 54, who are both exCovrad employees, treated Lynda to a slap-up lunch at The Royal Court Hotel, in Tamworth Road, Keresley.

Lynda admitted she was "overcome with emotion" when she told colleagues: "It's been lovely working with you and I didn't even want any fuss about leaving."

She was aged just 15 and had just finished at Herbert Fowler High School, in Arley, near Nuneaton, when she took a job at Covrad in the summer of 1965.

The well-respected employee, who lives in Kingsbridge Road, Weddington, Nuneaton, said: "I never expected to still be here 41 years later.

"I started out as a core assembler and used to make Massey Ferguson radiators.

"I've been a supervisor since about 1979 and I can sincerely say I've enjoyed every minute of working here."

Lynda and husband Sid, aged 55, a retired Rolls-Royce toolmaker who worked for the luxury car maker at Parkside, in Coventry, and Ansty, in Warwickshire, for 40 years, are retiring to a villa they have bought in Kyernia, in northern Cyprus.

She added: "I guess I'll have to adjust to not coming to work here every day.

"But my Sid and I have always planned to retire to Cyprus and we're looking forward to it."

Mrs Rafferty, of Woodway Walk, Woodway Park, who was also a core assembler at Covrad for 17 years until 1996, added: "No one deserves a happy retirement more than Lynda.

"We wanted to make sure she had a special send-off from here and it's been a terrific gesture by all concerned. I've been fighting back the tears myself. It's been emotional."